Mary Ann Levine

Mary Ann Levine is a Professor of Anthropology and Department Chair at Franklin & Marshall College. Before joining F&M in 1998, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Ithaca College from 1996 to 1998. Her research focuses on challenging assumptions about indigenous hunter-gatherer societies in the Northeast, post-contact colonial interactions, and integrating public archaeology with community service learning.

Levine holds a BA in Anthropology with First Class Honours from McGill University, where she was mentored by Bruce Trigger, Fumiko-Ikawa Smith, and Michael Bisson. She earned an MA with Distinction and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with her doctoral research addressing native copper provenance using trace element analysis, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Sigma Xi.

Her research interests include redefining understandings of hunter-gatherer land use patterns, particularly in upland regions of New York’s Finger Lakes, and examining intercultural mediation through figures like Madame Montour. She has led archaeological projects at Otstonwakin—a multinational village—and the Thaddeus Stevens/Lydia Hamilton Smith site, contributing to historic preservation awards and student collaborative work.

Levine’s work spans critiques of outdated ethnographic analogies, analysis of material culture in colonial contexts, and advocacy for inclusive archaeological narratives. She has emphasized the importance of marginalized landscapes and their role in indigenous lifeways, while her recent studies highlight colonial encounters and resistance to historical erasure.

She has been recognized with the 2003 Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster Elvin N. Heisey Award and the 2005 Preservation Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award for Archaeology. Her teaching and research foster student engagement through field schools and service-learning initiatives.